Chop suey fonts are a subcategory of so-called “ethnic” display fonts, and are a unique American invention with roots in the 170 year history of Chinese migrants in United States.

If you enjoyed this video, please consider supporting the great work at Welcome to Chinatown. https://www.welcometochinatown.com/
https://www.instagram.com/welcome.to.chinatown/

Special thanks to Raven Mo for her contribution to the original research, title dividers and personal perspective shared in this video. https://ravenmo.info/
https://www.instagram.com/ravenmodesign/

—

0:00 This lettering will look familiar… unless you’re from China.
1:06 What is a Chop Suey font?
1:35 Typographic Stereotypes from repeat usage
2:02 Typographic Stereotypes with design intent
3:04 How Chinese writing works, compared with Chop Suey fonts
4:44 Where it started, how it began
5:22 Some historical context
6:41 Chinatown’s theatrical reinvention
7:21 How exclusion propelled Chinese restaurant expansion
9:16 Repetition trumps authenticity
10:05 Why Chinese restaurants perpetuated this trope
10:57 Can a font be racist?
11:17 The type equivalent of a fake foreign accent
12:16 Or… don’t be a hack?
13:14 Where are things headed?
13:50 Chinese food is more than takeout food
15:11 Corporate high-end dining
15:42 Embassy restaurants
16:06 New-school Chinese American restaurants
16:45 An expression of Chinese identities
17:54 TienMin Liao’s multi-script typography
19:02 How to support Chinatown’s survival

—

Sources and further resources:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Maîtres_de_l’Affiche

Stereo Types

It’s Chinatown

Book


https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/chop-suey-fonts-hyphenated/index.html
http://fontdata.com/american-typeface-design-patents/?filter=d:Thorp%2C+Henry+H.
https://scholars.org/brief/untold-story-chinese-restaurants-america
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334429825_Cultural_Stereotypes_in_Letter_Forms_in_Public_Space
https://apebhconference.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/carter1.pdf
https://medium.com/aj-news/heres-what-chinese-takeout-menus-can-teach-us-about-immigration-4b41fcf5c0f7
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3576038/
https://medium.com/@Typeji/bilingual-lettering-2-observation-aa7921df018
https://typeji.com/MultiScript

Type 1 typographic sterotypes:
https://linedandunlined.com/archive/new-black-face/

Papyrus: The Power of a Bad Font

Plus:

https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/3/26/18282192/asian-accent-l-and-r
https://fortune.com/2020/06/21/chinese-restaurants-food-american-immigrants-businesses-coronavirus/

Home

Chop Suey Font

Introduction

Images:
http://menus.nypl.org/menus
https://www.foodanddrink.amdigital.co.uk/
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/soete-menu-collection?keywords=chinese
https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/search/collection/menus/searchterm/chinese/order/nosort
https://www.loc.gov/collections/genthe/
https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/
https://californiarevealed.org/

?My YouTube Gear https://kit.co/timesnewboman/youtube-gear
?Amazing AI Upscaling https://topazlabs.com/ref/1205/

Music from Artlist and Epidemic Sound
https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/x9c4wb

source

Comments are closed.